Bates Motel – Endings are the Best Part!

In the middle of the last episode of season 5, I found out that this is it. Bates Motel is coming to an end. I was halfway through when I realized that this episode is too glorious to not be a finale. Then, I checked and yes, my heart broke. The journey of Norman stops here.

If you have not watched the finale yet, please watch it because there are going to be spoilers, a lot of them.

Bates Motel has always been one of my favorites. From the first episode, I watched it one by one, as it came every week for the past five seasons. It was the unique proposition they had, ‘A prequel to the legendary horror movie Psycho’, which swept me away. A genre defining masterpiece which will always have a special place in our mind.

During the first 3 or 4 episodes, I was sure they sank it. It was no way close to what I expected. It should have been dark and depressing and mysterious, but all we saw was a happy trip taken by the mother and her son, a boring town and weird townspeople. But I don’t remember now why I decided to stick with it after that, it could be my hope that only if they could touch the brilliance the movie had, even in one episode, it would be worth it. I watched the last episode of Bates Motel tonight and I am happy that I stuck with till now because, friends, it was worth it.

I was half expecting that the show will end at a place from where the storyline of the movie will proceed. Even though I know that the creators said that the movie is more of an inspired piece rather than a prequel. I wasn’t disappointed when that didn’t happen because they managed to pull the finale off pretty gloriously and it everything felt complete. I have seen many television series which, while winding up the show, create a blunder in the final episode, or sometimes, leaves some crucial storyline halfway.

In the last episode, we saw Romero taking Norman hostage to find out where Norman hid Norma’s body. Romero gets killed, obviously. Norman then sees a vision of Norma, who told him that she has to go now as there is nothing left to protect him from. After that, he kind of jumped into the flashback and we saw some pretty memorable scene from the first episode, the ones which I hated when I watched them for the first time. We saw Norman remembering Norma taking him to the new town, how she was excited to move, how she had hope in her eyes when she presented him the motel, he also remembered what he said that day to his beloved mother. He brings back Norma’s body to the house and calls Dylan for dinner. Dylan knew what he had to do if things go south. So the show ended with Dylan shooting Norman, who thanks him for now, he is with his mother again. It was wrapped perfectly, even if it does not act as a prequel to the movie, it had numerous instances when it was inches away from the movie. My favorite moment was in the last episode when Norman was taking Norma’s body down the stairs, I remembered the exact scene from the movie.

I was thrilled when I found out Vera Farmiga will play Norma. I saw her in ‘Up in the Air’ and became a fan immediately. But I always thought that Freddy Highmore was not a very good choice for Norman. Well, I was wrong as I can assure you, you can see the difference if you see the first episode and this one. He has come far and should be remembered for his performance in this show. Max Thieriot and Olivia Cook played the characters who represent everything normal and stable in this spiraling house of madness, and they did well. Especially in the last season. Glad to see Romero ‘Nestor Carbonell’ again.

In the end, I would like to say that it was a pleasure watching Bates Motel. I will always count it as one of my favorites and will definitely recommend it to others.